Traditional approaches for assessing myocardial performance, either on a global or regional level, impose limitations on both the degree and the ease of analysis that can take place. Assessing regional function is typically accomplished by analyzing wall motion using echocardiography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), fast CT, or bi-plane cine radiographs. Most of these approaches do not allow assessment of the vigor of regional contraction performance during systole, the regional rates of change associated with either contraction or relaxation, performance averaged over a cardiac cycle, or changes in regional myocardial performance from one beat to the next beat.
In echocardiography, more rigorous assessment typically requires manual measurements of variables such as wall thickness. Other methods of quantitative assessment currently being investigated include the use of doppler, which has traditionally been used for measuring blood flow velocities, for measuring myocardial velocities. Unfortunately, doppler technology is inherently limited because it is accurate only when motion is directed along a line of sight of a transducer. There is also a dependence upon the angle between the line of sight and the motion, such that large errors in measurement occur when motion is directed perpendicular to the line of sight. Moreover, current doppler processing of a 90 degree sector limits the frame rate to approximately 12 Hz, such that appreciation of many cardiac events is limited.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the assessment of regional performance of a heart, wherein the limitations of current technology and methods are overcome.